Tom Browne (broadcaster and actor)
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Tom Browne (born on 11 November 1945) is a British broadcaster and actor, born in Lymington, Hampshire, and educated at King's College School, Wimbledon.
[edit] Career
As an actor, he graduated from RADA. He began his radio broadcasting career in Denmark in 1965, and in 1972 was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Alan Freeman as presenter of the BBC Radio 1 Sunday afternoon chart show. He presented this show from October 1, 1972 to March 26, 1978 - initially it was a three-hour show called "Solid Gold Sixty" but from the spring of 1974 onwards it was shortened to a one-hour Top 20 rundown. This would be the only show he ever presented on Radio 1, but he did present occasional music documentaries on the station, notably on Abba, Queen and the Stylistics,and he never showed any sign of crossing over to television, for example via Top of the Pops. His smooth style and Received Pronunciation voice (becoming more noticeable in later years; initially he had tried to sound more like a 1970s pop radio DJ) were unusual for Radio 1 even then, and would be utterly unthinkable now.
After leaving Radio 1 he would broadcast for BBC Radio 2 in the early 1980s, provide the voiceover for many TV and radio adverts, and continue his acting career, notably appearing in Emmerdale Farm (as it was then called). He subsequently became a newsreader for BBC World television and then moved to Hong Kong, where he became a popular broadcaster on the British Armed Forces radio service in the final years of British rule. His final appearance on national BBC radio came at the very end of 1991, when he presented "The Million Selling Singles of the 60s and 70s" on BBC Radio 2, although he was a contributor to Radio 1's "25 Years of the UK Top 40" which aired in September 1992. After the Hong Kong handover in 1997, he continued working in radio, as well as commercial voice over artist and freelance video presenter until 2005, thereafter retiring to Thailand.
